StepInterface: makes the step execute: inherit from BaseStep to make your life easier.

StepDataInterface: holds open cursors, resultsets, files, etc.

StepDialogInterface: GUI/dialog code to edit the meta-data

Don't get too creative when naming these classes. Spoon expects the metadata class name to end in "Meta" and the dialog class name to end in "Dialog", with the same prefix. So if your metadata object is called MyStepMeta, your dialog class will have to be called MyStepDialog. StepMetaInterface.getDialogClassName() is used only for finding the package, not the class name itself.

There are 50+ samples in the source code as this is the way all steps are constructed. What you need to do is add a plugin.xml file and an Icon to represent the step. Then you throw the 4 classes in a jar file. Throw all this : someplugin.jar, plugin.xml and someplugin.png in a directory under a kettle sub-directory : plugins/transformations/steps/SomePlugin.

You can also throw extra jar files you need in there and specify it's use in the plugin.xml file. (very simple)

See the attachment DummyPlugin.zip.

Changes from 2.5.x to 3.0

Metadata and Data in rows are now separated

The row data are now stored in an object array: Object[]

The primitives allowed in this Object array are the same as in the "old style" values:

String (String)

Double (Number)

Long (Integer)

Date (Date)

BigDecimal (BigNumber)

Boolean (Boolean)

byte[] (Binary)

Our aim for the 2.5 style engine was for empty Strings and values to be equal to null. This is enforced now by simply making elements in the Object array null.